Paul Klee at BC's McMullen: Let's think on it

Paul Klee painted ideas that changed 20th century philosophy. Now, the McMullen Museum of Art is exhibiting a mix of more than 65 paintings, drawings and sketches in "Paul Klee: Philosophical Vision: From Nature to Art."

A visitor viewing Paul Klee’s prints and paintings in the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College might initially feel like the "Tightrope Walker’’ in his 1923 lithograph, stepping precariously along an uncertain wire, afraid to plummet into the unknown.

A mix of more than 65 paintings, drawings and sketches, this ambitious exhibition, "Paul Klee: Philosophical Vision: From Nature to Art,’’ includes essays, lectures and quotations by formidable German and French philosophers.

So jump right in. You’ve got nowhere to fall but into originality, brilliance and visionary beauty.

As organized by philosophy professor John Sallis, this revelatory exhibit is the first to focus on connections and mutual influences between Klee’s varied art and the monumental changes that shaped 20th century philosophic thought.

Klee (1879-1940) emerges as a multitalented avatar who incorporated aspects of surrealism, cubism and expressionism in his art that was, at once, sophisticated and childlike.

A prodigious artist and writer, he completed more than 9,000 works over 40 years and left voluminous notes and sketchbooks from the decade (1921-1931) he taught at Bauhaus, the prestigious German school of art, design and architecture.

Also a gifted musician and poet, Klee explored the artist’s relationship with nature, the essence of art and its connection to philosophy.

A specialist in philosopher Immanuel Kant and modern German philosophy and aesthetics, Sallis said he spent four years developing the exhibit which examines the "relationship between Klee’s own theoretical and philosophical views’’ to "throw light on how they were elaborated in his own art.’’

While doing research in Europe over the last decade, he observed a "revival of interest’’ in Klee in several major exhibitions and the opening of the Zentrum Paul Klee museum in Bern which holds 4,000 of his works.

"The primary aim of the exhibit would be to examine and demonstrate how ideas developed in Klee’s writings and lectures are realized in his works of art. The themes that were to be taken up extend from that of the artist’s relation with nature to Klee’s conception of the nature of art and its relation to philosophy,’’ said Sallis.

He organized the exhibit in consultation with Jeffrey Howe and Claude Cernuschi, chairman and assistant chairman, respectively, of the Fine Arts Department, in a space designed by Diana Larsen.

By linking Klee’s evolving work with writings by the artist and philosophers, Sallis demonstrates how he employed form, line and color to express groundbreaking ideas on nature, language, music and the meaning of art.

It might not be a salacious cakewalk like Mario Testino’s photos of semi-naked celebrities at the Museum of Fine Arts. But taking the time to consider the reciprocal impact of art on philosophy provides rewarding insights into Klee’s influence on his age.

Page 2 of 3 - About half the works in "Philosophical Vision’’ were loaned from the Zentrum Paul Klee. Others come from local institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Public Library, Wellesley College, Harvard University and other venues.

A visitor does not need an advanced degree in metaphysics to enjoy Klee’s stunning originality and visual beauty.

Organized in eight sections that fill the two-story McMullen, it incorporates quotes from major philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Walter Benjamin who explicate Klee’s position as the emblematic 20th century painter.

Sallis stressed, "It’s not an exhibit that requires people to have a deep understanding of philosophy.’’

"Curating the exhibit, we were very careful not to presuppose viewers would come with a certain philosophical background. Writing the labels and making the audio guide for the exhibit, I took enormous pains to put all the ideas in ordinary language and make them accessible,’’ he said.

Viewers will see works in varied media ranging from a 1904 etching when Klee was in his 20s to several works on paper from 1940, the year of his death. Representing the remarkable breadth of styles and interests, it includes starkly symbolic drawings like "Serpent’s Prey’’ from 1926 to the ethereal "Waterbirds,’’ a 1939 visual meditation on the contrary dualities of existence, from the fanciful pen and watercolor "Chosen Boy’’ in which a juggling child exemplifies Klee’s recurring motif of balancing to the foreboding pastel "Stick It Out,’’ from 1940 when he was living in exile from Nazi Germany and facing death.

Museum Director Nancy Netzer described Klee as "both a seminal artist and philosophical thinker of the twentieth century.’’

"The exhibition reflects the new scholarship of fifteen leading philosophers and art historians … (that) demonstrate how Klee’s theories on nature, words and music are manifest visually in his paintings, drawings and prints,’’ said Netzer, also a professor of art history.

Born in Switzerland to a German father and Swiss mother, Klee spent much of his life in Germany but emigrated to Switzerland during the rise of Nazism when he was erroneously labeled a Jew and fired from his teaching position at Dusseldorf Academy.

Sallis said the show includes several rarely shown works from a series of 246 drawings, such as "Manhunt,’’ "Accusation in the Street’’ and "Double Murder’’ from 1933, that satirized in stark images "the atmosphere of suspicion and denunciation that the Nazis had created.’’

Klee suffered from scleroderma, a painful wasting disease that limited his output, but not the brilliance of his art.

After his death, his son had engraved on his tomb: "I cannot be grasped in the here and now, for I dwell just as well with the dead as with the unborn, somewhat closer to the heart of creation than usual, but far from close enough.’’

Page 3 of 3 - This powerful exhibition carries visitors closer to that "heart of creation’’ to glimpse the mainsprings of Klee’s visionary art.